Emergent plants other than mangroves?

[brittlestar]

Has anyone grown emergent (roots in the water, leaves in the air) plants in their tanks other than mangroves? There are a lot of other saltwater plants out there but we seem to be focusing only on the same 1-2 species of tree and sometimes seagrass. I live near the Chesapeake Bay and the salt marsh ecosystems are truly beautiful and fascinating places. There may be something out there that's easier to grow and propagate, or better at nutrient uptake, or that better suits your aesthetic preferences. It would also just be nice to diversify a bit. Some of them are edible and delicious even!
Sorry if this is the wrong thread, macroalgae seems like the closest thing to plants.

 

[Tritie]

I just started to wonder about this as well, yesterday! I'm interested too and hope someone chimes in. I just purchased a mangrove.

 

[CHSUB]

Would be interesting to see, however I live in SW Florida on Charlotte Harbor and the Peace River. Nothing else grows along the shore line except mangroves, as you go up river the mangroves disappear and other vegetation appears. In full or near full saltwater, I only see mangroves.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I am also going to follow this thread!

 

[brittlestar]

I just did the math -
there are about 380,000 species of plants in the world.
about 2% of those are halophytes (can grow in saltwater)
2% of 380,000 is 7,600!!! that's 7,600 plants we're missing out on...

 

[brittlestar]

And only 80 of them are mangroves

 

[CHSUB]

I just did the math -
there are about 380,000 species of plants in the world.
about 2% of those are halophytes (can grow in saltwater)
2% of 380,000 is 7,600!!! that's 7,600 plants we're missing out on...

My guess is most if not all are sea grasses? And how many are tropical that must complete with mangroves for real estate?

 

[brittlestar]

I looked it up and there's 72 known species of seagrass. But there is probably also a portion of halophytes that are more adapted to dry soils, and judging by what I see here in Virginia I'm sure a lot of the wetland/coastal species are temperate. Temperate doesn't mean we can't grow them though, my experience with carnivorous plants tells me there are ways around the dormancy requirement, especially with more warm temperate species like from the gulf coast

 

[CHSUB]

Not arguing, but imo mangroves seem to me the only feasible plant/tree. While I notice other plants growing on the shoreline none seem to also have the unique ability to be fully submerged in saltwater permanently. For example, even white mangroves cannot survive where red and black mangroves do. Black mangroves also appear less suitable closer to the gulf in high salinity where red mangroves exclusively grow. There is the sea grapes tree (coccoloba uvifera) that grows on the dunes but again not submerged.
Hopefully you will find something like j. Sprung did with mangroves maybe growing where you live? Wishing success…

 

[brittlestar]

I bet you could probably grow a lot of those with their roots in the water anyway, just not in the substrate like a mangrove. A lot of fully terrestrial plants do well in hydroponics. One I've been wondering about that I probably could plant is Halicornia - it grows in very similar conditions to mangroves and is extremely salt tolerant. It's also edible, which would be fun. I'll probably try to find some along the coast this spring/summer when it's growing.

 

[brittlestar]

Salicornia not halicornia

 

[Danjoethepirate]

I bet you could probably grow a lot of those with their roots in the water anyway, just not in the substrate like a mangrove. A lot of fully terrestrial plants do well in hydroponics. One I've been wondering about that I probably could plant is Halicornia - it grows in very similar conditions to mangroves and is extremely salt tolerant. It's also edible, which would be fun. I'll probably try to find some along the coast this spring/summer when it's growing.

Literally came to comment this. They are called seabeans. They aren't beans but a segmented plant, kind of like horsetails. I think they uptake silicates like horsetails too. They definitely can grow in a tidal flat that is basically all saltwater.

 

[courtneykeeps]

I've been thinking about this for a long time, so I'm following along for interest and discussion.

 

[Timfish]

Sea Purslane and Pickle Weed are two I've looked at. It seems to me there's several reasons other palnts haven't been tried. One is propogating them, mangroves don't require much of a substrate initially where other plants will need enough substrate to root in. Light intensity seems like it would be a limiting factor also as sea grasses or saltwater marsh plants probably wouldn't get enough light to do well with the PAR levels most aquarists use (Even with over 500 PAR my mangrove is on the "weedy" side with leaves spread fairly far apart)

 

[brittlestar]

A couple other plants I found that might work are saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) and black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus). Only way to find out is to try though. I've been looking for places I could buy Salicornia or Distichlis and haven't found anything that isn't meant for people who need way more plants that I do. I'd rather not buy 50 plugs for a 5 gallon refugium lol

 

[brittlestar]

I found this beautiful picture on iNaturalist. Salicornia in a Virginia salt marsh

 

[keagan]

Back in 2021 I posted about this as NS reefer. I'm still surprised that to this day new plants haven't been adopted. The setup I'm building now is going to have a drip tray full of crushed coral above the sump like this (AI mockup it'll look a bit different)

 

[keagan]

Emergent (roots submerged, foliage above water)

Red mangrove
Black mangrove
White mangrove
Buttonwood
Saltwort
Glasswort
Sea blite
Sea purslane
Sea lavender
Sea aster
Sea rocket
Sea plantain
Saltgrass
Seashore paspalum
Saltmarsh bulrush

Partially Flooded (periodically inundated)

Common cordgrass
Saltmeadow cordgrass
Saltmarsh rush
Sea clubrush
Arrowgrass
Sea milkwort
Sea wormwood
Saltmarsh fleabane
Virginia saltmarsh mallow
Sea oxeye

Top Tray Plants (well-drained but irrigated with saltwater)

Sea thrift
Sea holly
Sea kale
Rock samphire
Sea beet
Sea campion
Sea pea
Sea heath
Sea spurge
Sea wormwood
Beach morning glory
Narrowleaf iceplant

 

[me & my baby]

Following along

 

[vlangel]

@brittlestar, have you had any success in finding any plants that can grow with their roots submerged in saltwater, aside from mangroves?